(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monomer with anti-microbial characteristics, a polymeric compound with anti-microbial characteristics using the same, and manufacturing methods thereof, and more particularly, to an antimicrobial monomer that has durable antimicrobial activity and high heat resistance, does not give rise to toxicity when added to conventional polymeric resins and petrochemical products by not eluting antimicrobial compounds, and does not have an effect on the properties of molded products, an antimicrobial polymer using the same, and manufacturing methods thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, in line with great concerns about environmental hygiene and high-grade life style, the production of and demand for products conferring antimicrobial characteristics to petrochemical materials for use in industrial supplies such as food wrappers, containers for storage, toothbrushes, cutting boards, stationery, washing tubs, water purifiers, shampoos, soaps, cosmetics and wrappers, and medical supplies, are increasing.
In the case of organic antimicrobial substances used in these products (ex: quaternary ammonium salts, triazines, benzimidazole, triclosan, chlorohexidine, thiazoles, etc.), in order to confer antimicrobial ability to polymeric substances, the antimicrobial substances are simply added to the polymeric substances when manufacturing antimicrobial materials. However, it has been reported that the antimicrobial materials have technical limits in respect to the inherent toxicity of antimicrobial substances, the elution of antimicrobial substances, the reduction of antimicrobial ability due to the elution, and so on. Especially in the case of injecting or extruding plastics, antimicrobial substances may be decomposed by high heat, and they may also induce a yellowing phenomenon (low heat resistance).
In order to overcome the limits as described above, a simple mixing method with inorganic ceramic anti-microbial complexes is widely used. However, such a method also has the problem that the antimicrobial activities are chemically decreased when they come into contact with moisture (JAPAN NEWS Feb. 11 (Wed.), 1998, Monthly Ceramics No. 2, 1998). In addition, research on binding antimicrobial substances to polymers is in progress. Pittman disclosed a method of co-polymerizing pentachlorophenylacrylates and acrylic monomers in 1981 (Pittman et al., J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 1981, 26, 2403), and Korean Patent Application No. 97-62102 disclosed a method of directly mixing antimicrobial agents with fibers, leathers, or plastics, and molding and processing them using the chemical reaction between the antimicrobial agents and polymers. However, such methods still did not solve the problems of quality deterioration of products since the antimicrobial ability was lost due to heat degradation during manufacturing processes, yellowing occurred, and the mechanical properties of the molded articles deteriorated or dispersion in the formed articles was poor. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,115 disclosed a method of using quinolinecarboxylic compounds as a back bone, but it also did not solve the problems owing to the elution of antimicrobial substances.